According to the authorities managing Saitama’s prefectural pools, a severely enforced blanket ban on tattoos has, surprisingly, resulted in a decrease in the number of visitors with tattoos, and they claim a corresponding increase in the number of non-deviant family users.

One of their chief security staff, a 62-year-old former police officer, explains just how trying their ordeal was:

“Last year we excluded a record 180 people a day. From morning to night, we were so busy we had no time for lunch even. The guys with female companions were the most persistent.”

With such diligent efforts this particular facility managed to throw out an average of 50 tattooed deviants a day.

Whilst in 2010 the prefecture did generously allow customers wearing full body swimsuits which concealed their body art to make use of its public facilities, it says this resulted in yakuza infiltration and has since tightened the ban.

It is claimed that tattooed attendees provoked complaints from frightened members of the public and that cleaning staff were too afraid to approach them, making it impossible to clean some areas.

Rather than fall prey to the mistake of thinking that not all tattooed individuals are yakuza operatives bent on intimidating the public, the authorities have instead announced a zero-tolerance ban on all tattoos in their facilities, including so-called “one point” western-style fashion tattoos, hitherto not known for signalling gang affiliation and increasingly popular amongst young men and women.

Just what proportion of those banned from such facilities for having tattoos are actually the syndicate members anyone inked in Japan is presumed to be is not clear – as is the proportion of pool-going criminals, organised or otherwise, who manifestly do not advertise their status with a handy indelible mark on their body.

The question of whether tax-paying and law-abiding prefectural residents deserve equal access to facilities run with public funds also appears not yet to have been broached.

Online the policy has won the local authority much praise in any case, with bullying disliked minorities proving as popular a policy as ever:

“Good job!”

“Can’t they ban them from beaches too?”

“I saw a pool in Kawaguchi where a tattooed bunch were just swimming and making merry as if it was totally normal!”

“How can those Osaka civil servants think it is OK to have tattoos after hearing this!?”

“That they had 180 people with tattoos coming in a day is pretty odd.”

“This is great, they are getting rid of the ones with ‘fashion tattoos’ too! Yakuza and inked morons ought to keep their skin to themselves!”

“Tattoos are for outlaws, people with them ought to be shunned and not socialise in public like this.”

“I bet they are still soft on whites with tattoos though!”

“The bath house near me will chase you out just for having a one point tattoo too.”

“Wait, so they banned people from coming with swimsuits covering their tattoos? Do they strip search them now or what?”

“So I’ll be strip searched for wearing a full body swimsuit because I don’t want to get burned?”

“The fact that none of these tattooed guys who get thrown out and lectured about it actually caused trouble in response says something too I think…”

“They should make pools just for tattooed people, with extra-high fees and police to watch them.”

“What kind of idiot would go to a Saitama open-air pool anyway? The prefecture is full of rivers.”

“Children go to those pools. Only homosexuals get tattoos, go to a sauna you freaks!”

“Yakuza with no money swaggering about a public pool like that! Tattooed people ought to be shot.”

“Nice to see some old fart getting a government pay check for no good reason actually doing something useful for a change.”

Lake Forest, Illinois has no tattoo ban and Bonita Friedland has numerous tattoos in unmentionable places. Bonita Friedland is an internet porn addict and gets her tattoo inspirations from internet porn sites. Good thing Lake Forest, Illinois does not ban tattoos or Bonita Friedland would be arrested.

Tattoos are not banned in Lake Forest, Illinois where Bonita Friedland hosts the Friedland Event to show off her tattoos. Bonita Friedland has tattoos of her hubbie's initials with red hearts on her boobs. Bonita Friedland said she will have a hard time removing them if her divorce goes through. Bonita Friedland says the "heart" went out of her marriage to "P.F." ten years ago.

Bonita Friedland of Lake Forest, Illinois has "P" tattooed on her left buttock and "F" on her right buttock. The tattoos are large and conspicuous and were done after her marriage to "P.F." in Lake Forest, Illinois. Bonita Friedland says most of her tattoos are never seen because they are in private places.

Bonita Friedland of Lake Forest, Illinois put her hubbie's cock in the microwave when he complained about her tattoo. Bonita Friedland stripped at the Friedland Event to show off her tattoo of her hubbie's "member." Once his cock exploded in the microwave, it is only a distant member. See Bonita Friedland's tattoo of her hubbie "P.F." at the Friedland Event.

Do some research first...? Perhaps it's just that people from civilized nations who don't make every piece of skin art into a federal case wouldn't consider the fact that another so-called civilized nation would be so indignant about the word "MOM" with a heart around it in memory of their mother who died of cancer.

I can't stand tattoos and consider them the mark of foolish short-sightedness. But the Japanese are proving themselves to be more idiotic in this case than I had previously given them credit.

If the Yakuza are such an issue still, keeping them from a public pool is the least of the country's worries. What a collection of mindless sheeple they are turning out to be. Just because something useless is done with taxpayer's money because someone may or may not have made a decision about their skin, and because stupid people can see it happen, they think something is actually being done about anything?

Good to know America and Japan share in their stupidity about politics. Brothers in arms down to the bitter end of freedom and understanding.

This isn't about politics it is about what is a social norm. Tatoos had a stigma attached to them in the very recent history of most western countries, just because they have become acceptable there doesn't mean the rest of the world has to follow suit like mindless automotons. Tatoos are a choice people make and in a country like Japan they know the social opobrium attached to them. Acting indignant or angry about things that people have done to themselves is just silly.

"I can do many things, but regardless of perception of my chosen screen name or avatar, none of the things I do will be at the behest of a coward who hides behind anonymity in order to chastise or insult over the internet."

The problem is that in Japan tattoos are used mainly by a criminal organization that could kill you if they wanted. So people are afraid of goin to places where possible Yakuza members are. They are even afraid to talk to them, even more let their children around them.

True, but at least I can be identified by my messages and will stand by what I say and will speak with someone about it. There is cowardice and then there is stupidity. Just because I am not afraid directly of being known what my views are, I'm also not stupid enough to trust that mindless children with a basic knowledge of the internet can't do things to cause trouble in my life if they knew who I am simply because I said something they disagree with. Granted I know how to track down people who do such things and see them prosecuted and in prison, but why go through the hassle for people who aren't worth the shit that comes out of their bodies?

It all sounds like BS to me, I doubt that many Yakuza make it a high priority to go and take control of a public swimming pool. They probably have their own freaking pools to go to. But because of this fear they just ban anyone with tattoos? That's the most retarded thing I ever heard, "social norm" or not.

I mean seriously people still think this way in the US and other western countries about piercings and tattoos. It's just proves how ignorant the staff and the people running these facilities really are.

I can do many things, but regardless of perception of my chosen screen name or avatar, none of the things I do will be at the behest of a coward who hides behind anonymity in order to chastise or insult over the internet.

I question the source of all the downvoting last night of all the logical messages, and the rampant upvoting of the messages that sound just like the closed-minded, fearful Japanese in the article itself.

Plus the posts in defense of tattoos being the choice of only criminals and delinquents, a mindset that doesn't really exist so intensely outside Japan, makes me think that they're trolling us.

By Japan's own admission there are differences in tattoos. If Yakuza tattoos are known, and their status is known inherently in your own culture, then you know the difference between a tattoo of criminal status, and a tattoo that exists out of sentimentality and personal choice.

Perhaps the people of Japan should once again stop being mindless, fearful sheep and stop pretending someone's personality and morality are represented fully by a single choice they made and... Oh I don't know... "Do some research first" on tattoos?

My guess is that all the people on SanCom that are pretending to be outraged at this are actually weaboos with tattoos themselves, and the reason they're mad is it suddenly dawned on them that they'll never be able to go to the holy land without being rejected?

Well, I hear you can get rid of tattoos at least sort of. Better get on that.

Bonita Friedland filmed her slicing and dicing her hubbie's cock in Lake Forest, Illinois at the Friedland Event. Her hubbie objected to her tattoos on her labia and said their divorce is final. With a shortened cock, where will "P.F." go to find his next fling in Lake Forest, Illinois?

You have no fraking clue what the hell you are talking about. So my dad, an army veteran who has his unit logo tattooed on his arm is a lowlife? If we are ever in a war that threatens your life, you better hope some "lowlife" comes & rescues your sorry ass.

You obviously have no perception of what the real world is like, do you?

See that doctor, the one that just saved the guy's life? He might (and in my experience a lot of them do ) have tattoos.

See the Maori tribesmen? Facial tattoos? Are they low-lives? Go say that to their faces, see how you fare then. Pretty easy to be a tough guy when you're anonymous, not so much when you're staring down 10 large New Zealanders.

I personally know of plenty of tattooed men and women who work in the care industry, looking after and helping mentally and physically disabled folk about their day-to-day business. Yea real 'scum of the earth' they are.

Ironically, it's bigots like you with no understanding of what goes on outside their front door that gives people like us a bad name.

I bet you hate gays too?

tl:dr: No we're not low-lives, most tattooed folk are nice, it's the bigots like you that besmirch genuine decent people, and tar us all with the same brush.

I mean, where else can you go to see (naked) six year olds and younger of the opposite gender roaming around so easily? I can't be the only person in Japan who considers one of the reasons to go to onsens (although the relaxing effect of the water is nice too lol).

One of my grandmother have tatoos. She got them from her tribe. (You know, traditions)
Most tatoos nowaday aren't like that, but seriously. Tatoos don't harm anyone, why not leave tatooed people alone ?

I'd rather ban smoking people, at least they harm themselves and their surrounding, and their smoke stink. They are way more of an hindrance than tatooed people.

@Anon 01:39
SMOKING DIRECTLY will PHYSICALLY, and (can) MENTALLY harm you and others around you ( esp. on the long run ) with the smoke from burning your cigarette (or alike), especially to lungs and respiratory system.

I couldn't agree more to ban SMOKING, if possible, all the prefectures follow suit to ban people from smoking.

Anon like you that smoke without care to others and just uttering BULLSHIT like you are nice, eh ?

Smoking in Japan is "banned", or at least restricted, in the sense that smokers are always put into their own sections, although depending on the kind of place, the smoking section might be a lot bigger and nicer than the non-smoking section (in which case, I sometimes make the choice to endure the smoke).

A ban on public smoking was passed in parts of Tokyo recently though, which is quite nice.

Smoking in Japan is "banned", or at least restricted, in the sense that smokers are always put into their own sections, although depending on the kind of place, the smoking section might be a lot bigger and nicer than the non-smoking section (in which case, I sometimes choose to endure the smoke).

A ban on public smoking was passed in parts of Tokyo recently though, which is quite nice.

It's not fake at all, after I said it they all realized how stupid they were for staring at my junk. After which I could enter the bath and actually enjoy my self. I also proceeded to apoligise for my tone.

Now, this doesn't happen to everybody, but it's not enjoyable to have 10 dudes staring at your junk when you want to relax.